How to organise your ultimate Canada bear watching holiday

Wednesday 14 June, 2017

Canada bear watching holidays

Canada is blessed to have huge unspoilt wilderness and vast national parks. It also has low densities of humans living throughout its 6 provinces and is famous for its amazing wildlife. It is also famous for being home to all 3 species of North American bears and Wildlife Trails have designed bear watching holidays in Canada to see black bears, grizzly bears and polar bears. Infact, we pioneered a Canada bear safari – our ‘3 bears tour’ which allows you to see them all in one 2 week safari. So, if you are looking to see bears in Canada, we are going to explain how to do it the right way.

Best place to see bears in Canada?

Bear viewing in Canada is relatively easy and many visitors to Canada, not specifically on a Canada bear safari, will see them from the road in the Rockies, or maybe on a walking trail on Vancouver Island. However, there are some top bear viewing locations in Canada, which are known as the best place to see bears in Canada – while always respecting their space and following Canada Park services advice on ‘bear safety’. One such location is Vancouver Island and we offer numerous grizzly bear tours from Vancouver Island; as well as black bear tours from Tofino. There are no actual grizzly or brown bears on Vancouver Island itself, but grizzly bear day tours depart from here and visits famous bear viewing locations, such as Knight Inlet Lodge and Bute Inlet.

For clients with an adventurous spirit and a reasonable budget, you could consider a visit to the Great Bear Rainforest; where you can either join a liveaboard, or stay at the world famous Spirit Bear Lodge. As well as a chance to see the sacred ‘Kermode Bear’ – a genetic variant of the black bear – you will also see many brown bears and do so in one of the most beautiful temperate rainforests in the world.

One of our most popular Canada bear watching holidays is in the Bella Coola valley, where we go for low impact, intimate river drifts down the Bella Coola and Atnarko rivers. With no engines, we can feel at one with nature and enjoy some of the best grizzly bear viewing in Canada. We also have options here for

Best time to see bears in Canada?

The Canada bear watching seasons can be split roughly into 3 key periods; spring bear viewing, summer bear viewing and autumn bear viewing. Spring bear viewing is also about the estuaries and tidal zones, where both brown and black bears can forage for crustaceans and brown bears will feed ‘cow like’ on the extensive sedge grasses. This will also be the time that mothers will bring out their ‘spring cubs’ and we have the chance to see mother and cubs at Knight Inlet or other famous bear viewing locations in Canada.

Although we can continue to see both brown and black bears during the summer, the heat tends to keep them in the forests and cooler undergrowth and photographic opportunities diminish. It is possible to see Polar Bears in Churchill during the summer, but the number of polar bears is far higher during the months of October and November; so, this is the period visitors tend to book their polar bear safari in Churchill.

Early Autumn, is probably the best overall month to book your Canada bear watching holiday as the rivers come alive with the huge salmon runs and hungry bears looking to fatten up before their winter hibernation, gorge themselves on the spawning salmon. This is the time to visit Grizzly Bear Lodge at Knight Inlet and observe the grizzly bears fishing for salmon from the world famous viewing stands, or head to Bute Inlet on a grizzly bear day tour from Vancouver Island and explore multiple platforms from where you can enjoy the bears fishing.

In the later months of autumn, particularly late October/early November, we organise unique polar bear safaris to Churchill, Manitoba; where clients can view the polar bears from Tundra Buggies, or by visiting

Canada bear watching holidays

We have been organising bear safaris in Canada since 2003 and have one of the widest selection of bear viewing holidays in North America. If you would like to see bears in Canada then why not check out our exciting Canada wildlife holidays; which can be tailored to your personal requirements.

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